Salvator Mundi
Andrea Previtali, 1519
This oil on panel shows Christ as Savior of the world, his right hand raised in a gesture of blessing and a glass globe held in his left. Previtali painted it in 1519 in Bergamo, the city he returned to after training in Venice under Giovanni Bellini. The type derives from Dutch prototypes that circulated in Italy during the sixteenth century, and the painter reworked them with ease. The precise, linear handling, rooted in Flemish practice, sharply defines the features of the face, the folds of the garment and the sheen of the globe, while the atmosphere recalls the luminous poetry of Antonello da Messina and Bellini. On the frame appears his signature, accompanied by palm and olive branches tied with a ribbon, a device he repeated in other works so that he could be recognized. The panel reached the National Gallery in London in 1910 through the George Salting bequest, and it reveals a painter skilled at adapting the formulas of the leading masters of his time.
- Painter
- Andrea Previtali
- Date
- 1519
- Medium
- oil paint, panel
- Dimensions
- 62 × 53 cm
- Museum
- National Gallery, London
- Genre
- religious art
- Depicts
- Salvator Mundi
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